Peter Cooper Hewitt

It was justly by virtue of inheritance that Peter Cooper Hewitt acquired his genius for invention. His father, New York’s distinguished lawyer, wit and Mayor [Abram S. Hewitt], was himself—such are the forgotten pages of individual history—instructor in mathematics at Columbia in his early graduate years; his paternal grandfather was a well-known machinist and inventor of his day, and the practical bent of his maternal grandfather, Peter Cooper, was illustrated by the nature of the institute which he founded for the New York public. Dr. Hewitt’s inventions were of a character possible only to a man who combined exceptional scientific knowledge and ingenuity with the instinct of grappling with the most intricate scientific problems and the ability to turn his scientific discoveries to practical use. The electric lamp, the telegraph, and the telephone owe to his genius some of their most useful and interesting developments.

It was the most natural action in the world for his colleagues of the Inventors’ Guild to name him for the Naval Consulting Board of expert civilian scientists, organized by the Government to study problems arising from the war in 1915. It was equally natural for Hewitt, once his mind was directed to such problems, to turn his ingenious researches to experimentation with the flying-machine. Hewitt was very far from a scientific recluse. He was of an altogether engaging personality, keen and alert, devoted to his friends, never allowing his interest in and pursuit of scientific subjects to interfere entirely with his social instincts. His laboratory was in many ways almost unique. It was in the tower of the Madison Square Garden, where he enjoyed nothing more than bringing his friends around him and explaining the experiments he was carrying on or engaging them in talk on his own problems and the problems of the day.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1922 Century Association Yearbook